Come Get Roasted For Asking Bad Questions

[Jonathan Greene]

The forums have evolved into a vortex of AI mixed with spam and sprinkled over with abject fragility and echo chambers.

This forum is where you come to get roasted.

Ask your bad questions. Accept the roast. Learn.

This is not another backpat forum where everyone earns a trophy for showing up. It's real answers from real people, not generated by AI or a sales pitch. There is no guru course to sell, nor is there an e-book that you must read for free if you pay for shipping.

Most of us can't even go in the forums anymore because they are so boring. Don't make it worse.

Only ask questions here if you want the truth.

Don't ask how to invest in real estate or if you should start an LLC. Ask better questions and you will get better answers.

If this turns into another viral hotpot, don't blame me, blame @Remington Lyman for asking me to come back to the forums for some levity.

[Becca F.]

You're back! Maybe temporarily. I used to comment and post frequently and this has decreased a lot in the past month. 

Not to scare away beginning investors but I do feel that many of them probably saw on social media that real estate is a way to reach "financial freedom and build wealth". One of the last few comments I made on an aspiring investor's post was on a 22 year old who started his first day on a corporate job and hated it. I think maybe looking for some magic formula so he could get into real estate so he could quit his W2 job - there were two experienced investors who said it takes years to build up portfolio and I think it was a huge reality check. This person didn't ever respond back to our questions to him. 

I think it's much more difficult in 2024-2025 with high on market prices and higher interest rates. It's not like 2010-2021 or 2008 or before that. I tried to give him some hope with if corporate job isn't for you, maybe consider other career paths. If you're miserable at 22 and don't change your mindset, that's a long sad life. There's no get rich quick in 5 or 7 years, can't click on a property on Zillow, buy it and expect it to start spitting out money, which could have been maybe been done in 2014. 

Maybe it's just me but I'm noticing a lot of people in their 20s that have barely begun working but hate their jobs and want to "retire early", FIRE, "passive income", financial freedom, or whatever social media gurus are posting. When I was growing up I saw people who worked years and bought California property (when it was a lot less expensive) and now they are reaping the benefits 15 to 30+ years later - no one quit their job in 5 years of buying a rental. 

There is a lot of spam with people trying to sales pitch something. Then copy and paste and ChatGPT. 

To the new investors, please attend local meet ups and talk to people in real life that invest in your market or out of state, walk properties, see how renovations are done, ask investors and contractors, etc. You can't invest in RE by being online all the time. I attend local meet ups all the time and am still learning - I talk to my RE friends who invest in California as well as other states and there are so many things to consider, pivoting when one strategy you planned isn't working etc. One market may work well for Investor A but be not aligned with Investor B's goals.